Survey finds running family car costs over €10k per year

The survey, carried out by The AA, shows that while fuel prices have fallen in the past 12 months, a major rise in insurance costs means the average figure has fallen by just €17.60.

The typical motorist has experienced a 20% rise in premiums.

Director of Consumer Affairs with The AA Conor Faughnan said: “This is the biggest one-year rise in insurance prices in well over a decade.”

However, this increase in premiums has been counteracted by the drop in fuel prices, with petrol currently 7% cheaper than it was 12 months ago.

The AA calculates the average price for a car in each tax band using costs such as fuel, insurance, servicing, depreciation and replacing parts such as tyres.

The survey assumes a motorist buys a new car and retains it for eight years, driving an average distance of 16,000km per year.

Mr Faughnan said the rise in insurance premiums will get worse before it gets better but that even with the sharp rise, Irish motorists are still paying less than they were ten years ago.

“Fundamentally it’s a correction for the collective behaviour of the insurance industry over the last number of years where they were engaged in an unsustainable price war.

“That could never last forever, we’ve had insurance companies go broke. We know that it was unsustainable but I suppose realistically if you considered what we paid ten years ago we are in fact, even actually paying less in euros for motor insurance today than we were in 2005,” he said.

Mr Faughnan said fraud needs to be tackled in the Irish insurance area, and is an issue in which Ireland has been blithely tolerant over the past number of years.

He also said the growing disconnect between the thresholds of personal injury awards of €60,000 from the District Court, and €37,000 from the Injuries Board needs to be addressed.